Harakiri
by New Model No. 9
Summary: What if Jack had gone through with his suicide attempt? Read and review! It can be JackxAshi if you want and I'm thinking about making it JackxAshi myself, but for the time being, there's more than enough room for interpretation.
1. Chapter 1

This night was a dark night. The moon shined down a sinister emerald glow and the various creatures of the night continued their various songs as a warrior clad in green walked briskly through the woods. This warrior, known by few as Ashi, was brought into this world and raised with a single purpose in mind: to kill the Samurai. Under the cruel eye of her mother, she was conditioned, both physically and mentally, alongside her sisters, to destroy one of the most infamous and terrifying warriors alive, Samurai Jack.

That was her one and only goal since. A goal that took her and her sisters from a wet forest, to an abandoned temple where the group suffered their first casualty at the hands of the Samurai, to a frozen tundra where all, but one of them was dispatched, in quite gruesome fashion. Remembrance of the loss of her kin troubled Ashi greatly, but she knew that the Samurai had only done what he did out of self-defense. It likely would have troubled her a great deal more if not for the fact that she wasn't allowed to bond with her sisters under the strict regime of their mother, who thought emotional bonds were a form of weakness.

Her subconscious mind still screamed at her even after he had saved her life by unwillingly dragging her from the belly of a great beast. Kill the Samurai! Kill the Samurai! Make him suffer for the glory of Aku! But, she just could find it in her to do so from that point onward. His actions inside of the beast as well as his display of compassion toward the smaller, weaker creatures of the world had showed Ashi that there was much more to this person than her mother had lead her to believe, and that there was likely a lot more to her idol Aku than she thought as well.

They soon found themselves breaking into a factory to rescue the children of a destroyed village that they had come across. Ashi had found herself captured by the factories overseer and was subsequently tortured with torrents of electricity shot from his hands. Not for information, but only for the pleasure of this sick fiend. While the overseer was recharging, she happened to look up at the display monitors to see that Jack was being swarmed by the children they were after, obviously under the influence of this sick bastard, but Jack refused to use any sort of fighting ability that would significantly endanger any child in his reach.

"Would'ya look at that! Righteous fool. After everything, he still can't hurt an innocent!" said the overseer with a dark chuckle.

That was it. The goodness of Jack might as well have been carved into her very being in that moment. Ashi found herself trembling with rage at the thought of someone so pure of heart and noble being spun into the very evil that she now saw Aku for. Her rage allowed her to break free from her binds and ensure that the sadistic overseer would never harm another innocent, child or adult, ever again.

Ashi, now free of the darkness that choked her mind, body, and soul, continued through the forest, clad in her new garments made from the various plants found in the forest. She had scrubbed the very darkness from her own body, a darkness that had marked her ever since she was a little girl. She rejected her purpose and found a new one: to find the Samurai and help him in any way she could and she wasn't alone. Through looking for Samurai Jack, she encountered many beings whom he had touched through his travels. From large, furry creatures to experienced bowmen and even a legion of people that looked to be close to her age all claimed that they owed their lives and livelihoods to this noble warrior, the Samurai.

After being directed by a short, cloaked figure. Ashi could feel that she was approaching Jack's location. But she could also feel that something was very off. The air felt stale the further into this part of the forest she walked. The darkness radiated from every tree, but this wasn't the darkness of Aku. No, this was a much more universal and primal darkness. Ashi knew in her heart what all of this could mean for Jack, but she refused to pay the thought any mind.

After crossing a river, she came across a set of stone steps. Something beckoned to her, letting her know that who she seeked was just beyond. She was greeted by the site of tombstones. Tombstones too numerous to count, stretching in all directions. A sickly green aura resembling that of the moon radiated from the cemetery, choking the narrow pathways that twisted through the tombstones, like a maze. Despite the nagging feeling in her head telling her not to, Ashi pressed forward. She knew Jack was in here and she knew that he was in danger.

She didn't have to go far into the cemetery to find him. She gasped lightly when she saw him, but quickly smiled upon realizing that she had found Jack.

"Samurai?" she called to him.

The smile quickly faded when she took in the sight before her. Jack sat on his knees, motionless. Eyes closed with a razor sharp katana laid at his knees. Whatever was going on here, Ashi knew it couldn't have been good.

"Jack?" she called out again.

A horse whinnying in the distance quickly caught her attention. She looked to her left and noticed a huge, armored figure astride a massive horse, armed with a variety of weapons. The hulking mass of armor rode up next to Jack and dismounted his horse. Ashi knew that this warrior was not of this world when he glided toward her without his feet ever touching the ground, as if he was some sort of reaper.

"You may witness, but you cannot proceed any further." Stated the warrior in a voice so cold and hoarse that it seemed to steal the very heat from Ashi's blood.

"Witness… what?" inquired Ashi.

"The end." the warrior coldly replied.

Ashi continued watching, fear slowly gripping her as four more ghostly warriors ascended from their graves, surrounding the Samurai, who had still not moved an inch.

"Great warriors of past, I welcome you." bided the lead warrior, unsheathing his katana.

"This samurai has failed his purpose and has accepted his fate." stated the warrior, bringing his blade to a ready stance over Jack.

All of the surrounding warriors watched, unmoving as Jack finally reached down and picked up his own katana. The cold, unfeeling gazes of the ghostly warriors seemed to burn right through Jack. Jack turned the blade into a reverse grip in his hand and raised it above his head. Ashi's eyes widened with shock and horror as the realized what the Samurai was about to do.

"Stop!" Ashi screamed, sprinting toward Jack.

She was only a few feet away from him when the head warrior knocked her away with the back of his hand. Ashi fell back onto a headstone with a loud crack and a grunt as the headstone gave beneath the force.

"This does not concern you. There is no hope." said the warrior.

"No." said Ashi, bringing herself to her feet. "Hope lives! It is everywhere! I've seen it! Everyone you have touched! The people you've helped! You saved them!"

"ENOUGH!" bellowed the warrior.

The warrior charged at Ashi with great speed, furiously swinging his katana with Ashi dodging his blows. She could hear the rampant crashing and crumbling of rock as the blows that didn't hit her hit the headstones instead, sending bits of rock flying in all directions. The warrior raised his weapon over his head and brought it down toward Ashi with an animalistic amount of force. Not having enough time to dodge, Ashi took a piece of broken headstone from the ground and used it to block the brunt of the blow. She grimaced as the warriors blade bent the headstoned at a 90 degree angle before it gave completely, burying her in its rubble.

"Hope is a fleeting sentiment." said the warrior. "Your failure is real. You must face the consequences or continue to bear the guilt of your dishonor for all eternity."

Jack was visibly trembling at the point, his grasp on his weapon so tight that his knuckles where as white as chalk, beads of sweat pouring down his face and brow.

"Jack! Don't listen!" Ashi yelled toward him, excavating herself from the rubble pile. "You're being misguided! I've seen it! You've saved countless innocents!"

Ashi took to her feet once more.

"But most of all, you showed me the truth!" Ashi said as the warrior lunged at her again, swinging his blade with a burning anger and a cold precision, trying his best to cut the young woman down. Ashi delivered a swift kick to the warriors head, briefly stunning him.

"You made me see that there's so much more to me than I knew existed!" Ashi pleaded with Jack as the warrior recovered and continued his attack on her.

"You made me way more than what I was!" Ashi continued, trying her best to steer Jack away from this fate he was speeding toward while dodging slashes and lunges from the warrior at the same time. She dodged a couple more slashes before the warrior grabbed her by her upper torso, his large hand easily able to wrap around Ashi's tiny frame.

"The hope you gave me saved my life!" Ashi screamed, straining against the grip of the warrior. The warrior than threw her with a great amount of force into another headstone, the stone crumbling against the force.

"Death follows in your wake. Men. Women! CHILDREN!" bellowed the warrior to Jack. Jack was on the very edge. His self-loathing and frayed sanity constantly whispering to him to do it. To end his torment and, by extension, the torment of all those he comes across. "Even the one person who cared enough to come and attempt to reason with you hates you, deep down. You killed her family, after all. Stole her very childhood away from her just by BEING!"

That did it.

Ashi already had a rebuttal for the warriors claim, but it was too late. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Jack gave one deep breath and used all of his strength to plunge the blade deep into has abdomen. Blood spewed from the wound and his mouth as he recoiled from the blow before falling down onto his side, blood pooling under his body, now seemingly lifeless.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Ashi screamed, her eyes wide, tears welling up as she sprinted toward Jack again. The warrior looked at Jack's still form then nodded toward the other ghostly warriors before all of them descended back into the ground.

Ashi fell to her knees beside Jack and cradled his head in her arms, desperately looking for any sign of life in his face. Jack still had a sliver of life left in him, however. With great effort, he opened his eyes again to see Ashi's tear-laden face starring back down at him.

"You shouldn't have come, young one." whispered the Samurai. "You could have been killed as well."

This just made Ashi weep even more. Even when he was on the verge of death, his concern was still centered on others.

"You fool." Said Ashi through her tears. "You've done so much good for people! Why?"

"You don't understand." whispered Jack. "I have been the cause of so much despair and suffering in the world. I have failed in my mission and abandoned my family to death at the hands of Aku. This is the fate I deserve."

"No!" screamed Ashi. "I've seen the force for good you are with my waking eyes! You have the love and admiration of so many different people! Would you really abandon them all to their fate here under Akus rule? Would you really abandon… me?"

Jack felt a stinging in his eyes as he drank in Ashi's words. He realized then that giving in to his despair was possibly one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made. Ashi could see the tears forming in his eyes and could tell that his heart had been changed.

Ashi tore one of the long leaves from her skirt and began tying it around Jack's wound as tightly as she could.

"What are you doing?" Jack weakly inquired, consciousness becoming harder and harder to hold on to by the second.

"By my entire being, you are not dying here. Not like this. You've already saved me more than once. Now let me save you." stated Ashi. She knew he would need advanced medical treatment, but the bandage should at least keep him alive for the time being.

The last words from Jack's mouth before losing consciousness both flattered and amused Ashi, despite the dark environment and situation.

"I like your hair… and dress."


	2. Chapter 2

Ashi's panic briefly spiked when she noticed that the Samurai had lost consciousness, but she knew that if she faltered now, she could very well lose him for good. Gingerly, so not to upset his wound, she carried him on her back like a mother or father would sometimes carry a child. She wracked her brain. They needed help. Fast.

Who could they trust enough to give Jack the medical attention he needs? Definitely not the ravers. Ashi also doubted that the woolies could do very much about human wounds this deep.

"Think, damn it, think!" Ashi said to herself.

She knew that no city's hospital would dare harbor the Samurai for fear of Aku's wrath coming down on them.

"The bowmen!" Ashi exclaimed. They had told her that the Samurai had given them all they needed to build a society of their own. They would surely help him. They have to, because now he needed them, more than ever.

Ashi steadied herself with her burden on her back, and began trudging through the forest. Daybreak was almost upon them, the sky just beginning to turn various hues of orange and blue as the morning sun made its way toward the horizon. While the light did a lot in comforting Ashi, she knew she would definitely have to be a lot more careful going forward.

Aku has patrols of his various killing machines keeping watch on even the more remote places of the world. Not all places, but his eyes were certainly everywhere. Ashi would have to keep a low profile if she wanted to make it to the bowmen's village with her cargo alive and in check. Thankfully, her training as well as her small frame afforded her excellent stealth potential. Ashi did not find it too difficult to sneak past the various carnivorous forest beasts when she first set out looking for Jack, but that would be easier said than done with Jack on her shoulders now.

Ashi was waiting for a pair of beetle-bots to continue on their patrol when she heard a growling noise coming from behind them. Ashi turned back to notice a large tiger, glaring right at them with a hungry glint in it's eye. With a roar, the tiger pounced. Ashi ducked and followed up with a swift kick to the animal's bottom jaw before sprinting into the woods with Jack still on her shoulders.

Ashi, while not knowing much about the wildlife of the planet beyond the creatures she had already encountered, knew that this animal was a swift predator and that she would never be able to outrun it. They had to hide. Ashi's head darted from side to side, frantically looking for any nook or cranny in the forest that could conceivably be used as a hiding place.

Ashi could hear the tigers growls and heavy pawfalls getting closer and closer. Ashi was about to give up and start running again anyway when she saw a large tree with a hollow hole in it's trunk some distance up from the ground.

"Better than nothing." Ashi said to herself.

She used all of the strength in her legs to jump both her and Jack's weight to the hole. She gently sat Jack in an upright position against the back wall. Only a small handful of seconds later, the tiger burst from the brush with its teeth bared, but no sign of its quarry.

Ashi watched from above as the tiger slowly stalked its way around them. Carefully investigating the trees, ground, fallen leaves, anything that might give it a sign as to where it's potential meal could have gone. The tiger wandered around their vicinity for what seemed like forever until it came to a halt right in front of the tree they were hiding in.

Ashi saw the animal sniffing the air, its head slowly being pulled upward toward them. It was at this moment that Ashi realized.

"Oh no, it can smell the blood!"

The tiger leaped onto the tree-trunk, it's claws digging deep into the wood as it attempted to climb its way toward them. Ashi knew that they were trapped, panic once again seeping into her head, the tigers roars and growling plus the sound of its claws lacerating the tree trunk continuously echoing in her ears.

As it's happened in the past, however, Ashi's fear soon turned to anger.

Once the tiger reached the threshold of their hiding place, Ashi did the only thing she thought she could do. In a twitch reaction, she charged the tiger head on and tackled it, both of them falling to the ground below. Ashi quickly pulled herself to her feet, while the tiger had already recovered. The two stared each other down. Running wasn't an option and they were the only two creatures in sight.

"Fight the tiger, huh?" Ashi thought to herself, assuming her ready stance. She knew that this creature was much stronger and had the savagery of an animal to compliment it. Her best hope was to land a blow on the creature strong enough to knock it unconscious, as she was unarmed. Then, she would take the Samurai and abscond to the village of the bowmen.

The animal charged her, it's jaws wide open ready to crush Ashi's skull. Ashi back-stepped the attack and followed up with a swift jab to the tigers eye. This seemed to only enrage the beast as it jumped at Ashi again, this time with more success, pinning her to the ground. Ashi could just barely move her head out of the way of the animals snapping jaws as it tried it's best to crush her skull.

Ashi kneed the creature as hard as she could in the stomach, briefly knocking the wind out of it. She wriggled away from its grasp and delivered a swift kick right on the nose, stunning it. The animal backed up, recoiling from the blow. Ashi aimed another kick directly at the creatures head, but it was its turn to dodge. The tiger snapped it's head down, grabbing Ashi's leg with its jaws and swung her into a tree.

Ashi barely had enough time to recover from the bump to duck a swift swipe of the tigers paw. She knew she couldn't keep this up much longer. At some point, the tiger would wear her down enough to deliver a fatal blow on her. She needed to incapacitate the animal now. She then remembered a technique that she learned when she was young. She never thought she would need it up until recently due to how centered she was on killing, but it looked like it was her best option at this point.

The tiger lunged at her again. Ashi used the tree trunk to push off, vaulting over the tiger and onto its back. Before the animal knew what was going on, Ashi wrapped both of her arms around the animals neck as tightly as she could, sweat pouring down her face. The tiger roared, kicking and bucking, trying its best to get Ashi off of it, but it was no use. Ashi's grip was firmly locked and holding on for dear life.

At first it seemed like it wasn't working, the animal continued kicking and bucking, despite Ashi having held the hold for what seemed like hours, even if it was only a minute or so. Ashi thought she could feel her grip beginning to slip when, at last, she felt the animal slowing down, kicking and bucking with a steadily decreasing amount of force.

The animal continued slowing down, more and more, until it finally came crashing down to the ground with a loud thud. Ashi slowly released her grip on the animal's neck, careful to the possibility that it might just be playing possum to get her to release her hold. Fortunately, the creature stayed down as Ashi came around the front. The animal was still breathing, much to Ashi's relief. The sleeper hold had worked and the animal was out cold.

Ashi made her way back to her former hiding place and checked on Jack. The leaf bandage on his abdomen was nearly soaked in blood and he was beginning to run a fever. Ashi brought him down to the forest floor and used another large leaf from some of the flora to change Jacks wound binding. Once that was done, she hoisted him back onto her back and continued onward through the woods. She knew the village of the bowmen was not far now and that she needed to make haste.

Ashi could feel Jacks breath on the back of her neck becoming more and more ragged. Her trudging soon turned to running. She could see the mountainous spire that made up the bowmen's village in the distance. Hope drove her on, kept her from breaking her pace. She had to keep running, for Jack's sake. As Ashi was running, a flurry of arrows shot forth from the brush. Reacting on pure instinct, Ashi turned and ducked behind a large rock as the arrows flew past her.

She then heard a familiar voice.

"If you are a friend of Aku, we suggest you run. If you are not, reveal yourself!"

Ashi stepped out into the open, where the bowmen could see her, who were just now emerging from the brush, arrows at the ready.

"It's Ashi and I have the Samurai with me!" exclaimed Ashi. "He needs medical treatment now!"

"The Samurai?" asked one of the bowmen.

The bowmen walked over to Ashi to inspect the man slumped over on her shoulders. Ashi deduced from the shocked look on his face that he knew that this was, indeed, the Samurai that they were so grateful for, bleeding and burning up.

"Come, let us go back to our village." said the bowmen. "We have medicine and shamans skilled in the mending of broken bodies. You two may heal and rest there."

One of the bowmen took Jack from her shoulders. Relief washed over her, but it was soon replaced by a sharp pain in her leg. Ashi looked down to see two bloody bite marks in her leg where the tiger had grabbed her. Now that the adrenaline had faded, she was all too aware of it now. Another bowmen scooped her up as well and carried both her and her samurai companion away to the safety of their village.

The sun was in the sky, shining down it's morning warmth when Jack and Ashi reached the village. The other villagers were given no time to gawk at the Samurai as they made their way into another hut, which was clearly some kind of medical center judging by the abundance of beds and herbs as well as medical utensils.

After one of their shamans examined Jack and his wound, two bowmen whisked him away to another room.

"Where are you taking him?" Ashi asked.

"His wound is deep and an infection appears to have taken root in his body. We have the necessary means to mend him, but it will take some time and no small amount of strength on Jacks part to make it through this." stated the bowmen. "I have faith in him, though."

"Okay." Ashi said with a hint of dejection in her voice. There was still that probability that he wouldn't and she couldn't take her mind off of it. Ashi then winced as the pain in her leg caused her to stumble against the wall.

"Careful, young one." said the bowmen. "You need medical attention as well. Fortunately, your wounds don't seem to be as severe. I will have another one of the shamans fix up your leg. This way." Said the bowmen.

Ashi limped a short distance to another room where said shaman was already waiting with a disinfecting agent of some kind as well as a needle and some sutures and some bandages. Ashi laid down on the table and the shaman went to work, first pouring the disinfectant onto Ashi's wounds, which made her wince. Thankfully, the disinfectant also seemed to double as a numbing agent because the pain that would have come with stitching up a wound seemed to be very dull to her. Once all of her wounds were properly sewn up, she tried to get up from the table, but was stopped by the bowmen who had led her there.

"Jack's healing process will take a bit longer and you both need rest. Come, we have a bed set up for you."

Ashi was then led to the village inn and was shown to her room. A modest accommodation with a bed, a nightstand and two wall mounted candles for lighting. A comfy bed and some shut-eye didn't sound bad at all to her. She collapsed onto the bed, thoroughly exhausted from the day's events and it didn't take long for her eyelids to start getting heavy. As sleep fell upon her, she muttered a silent prayer to whatever benevolent deities that may or may not exist that Jack would be okay.


End file.
